University Threatens Criminal Charges Over Firefly Poster

[Awexsome]

I believe at the college level you should be able to leave up a quote from a movie that refers to violence.

However. The guy had it coming for not bringing up his problem with the rules with the first poster's incident and just putting up another one that IMO was worse. If the school makes these rules he should bring it up with them the first time. Then after he breaks the rules a second time he goes and sues about "HELP HELP I'M BEING OPPRESSED!"

I'd fire the guy.

 

[lowkey_jotunn]

There's an "Inception" joke to be made here... or possibly a "yo dawg," in regards to fascist assholes taking down a poster about fascist assholes, thus solidifying their place in the halls of fascist assholes.

but it's almost midnight, and I am le tired.

 

[silent_noir_67]

Apparently the college heads can't quite grasp the concept of irony lol

But I mean come on, if it was junior high or even high school then the school might have a better argument because people are under 18 and all, but university?! come on people!! stop coddling 19+ year olds who don't want to be coddled...

 

[DracoSuave]

That hat on your avatar is awesome (just wanted to say that first)

anyway, the thing you are forgetting is that freedom of speech only protects people from The government.

public university

it has no baerings on anyone else. The University is tottaly within its rights to fire this smart ass prof if they so please for his failure to comply with university policy.

However, they are not within their rights to have asinine university policy.

Besides, those posters, while awesome, are in no way shape or form fit for the work place.

Having a poster up that discusses killing human beings outside of your door where everyone, including students and parents on tour is very unprofessional. Following that up with a poster about fascism is childish.[/quote]

A poster quoting a piece of dramatic art is not appropriate for a dramatic arts class? What IS appropriate? It's a university, not a damn cubicle farm.

I want to raise the nerd flag and defend this guy but what he did isn't worth defending.

Bullocks.

See, there's something else that's a result of this 'policy.' It inherently destroys educational merit, particularily regarding their dramatic arts program.

Basically, it outlaws discussion of conflict. In a sceince class, this is fine. You don't need to worry about human beings attacking other human beings in a serious discussion of scientific principles or methods or current experiments or anything.

HOWEVER

This isn't a science class. This is dramatic arts and the core essential element of every dramatic arts narrative IS conflict. Without conflict, you have no narrative. And that poster is itself an expression of how a specific character deals with his external conflicts, and not even about what he would do, but more importantly... what he would NOT do.

See, it's absolutely appropriate to have such a thing in a dramatic arts class.

Of course, there are people who think that a poster featuring a character from some movie, accompanied with a quote is some personal threat against them, and that when people quote things on walls it's meant for them personally. We call those people 'irrational.' It's wholely inappropriate to kowtow to the irrational in an institute of rationality.


"BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN!"

This is a gorram university. There's no children to think of.


"Oh pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth that I am meek and gentle with these butchers..."

Policies like this forbid the discussion of William Shakespeare's plays. There can be no stagingss of The Scottish Play. There's no Romeo and Juliet. Julius Caeser? Nope.

Even something as seemingly harmless as Waiting for Godot? Nope.

This doesn't even cover the idea that it prevents the depiction of historical fact.

 

[orangeapples]

Apparently the college heads can't quite grasp the concept of irony lol

But I mean come on, if it was junior high or even high school then the school might have a better argument because people are under 18 and all, but university?! come on people!! stop coddling 19+ year olds who don't want to be coddled...

Have you been in university? they say they don't want to take the easy way, but that is ALL they ever want to do.

And age doesn't matter; being 19+ doesn't make them automatically exempt from being dumb. Many of them will STILL believe anything a professor says. In one of my classes, the professor said, "I am going to show you that everything you thought you knew is wrong." and gave us a quiz. I chose all of the least likely answers because I figured, "Prof said I don't know it, so what I believe must be wrong and what I think is wrong must be right." Doing that I only got 2 wrong. Everyone else only got 2 right. This is a senior level class; we're all older than 19. Our instructor basically told us what we needed to do, and people still got it wrong.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

So does he have a history of being "bullied" at the work place?

He does now.

One incident does not bullying make

WRONG. Very wrong.

Because it's the exact same ruling that he's being charged over. That ONE incident might make someone go AWOL.

People like you who want to sweep this under the "Well, it's in the rules" - when it clearly isn't - are the ones who support this sort of bullying.

So who else has firefly posters up in their class room and is not being singled out? Just because he's the only one who has been the subject of action by the university does not mean that all faculty are not under the same scrutiny.

As I said, it's nothing to do with the poster. As she said it's

"The poster can be interpreted as a threat by others and/or could cause those that view it to believe that you are willing/able to carry out actions similar to what is listed,"

Now, that's NOT University policy, that's the inane ramblings of a power-hungry unauthorised legal representative who is NOT part of the faculty.

Were she to act on that SAME ruling throughout the school, then most of the books detailing History and the posters listed above would be banned. They are not. Therefore, the Professor is being bullied. Which is why he took it to F.I.R.E. Which is why they recommended that criminal charges were dropped and the university stopped harassing him.

That's the facts.

"Do as you're told" hasn't been part of the workplace since the Civil War.

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

 

[GoddyofAus]

The United States: You can buy a Gun at Walmart, but don't you dare have posters talking about killing hanging up on you door.

If brains were birdshit, the U.S would have a particularly clean cage.

 

[Boba Frag]

What a pack of sad, pathetic fools with nothing better to do with their time than niggle at every single little thing.
Jesus, why not install an Independent Thought Alarm while they're at it!!

One of my lecturers used to have a Jolly Roger on his door with something along the lines of 'There comes a time when every man must hoist the black flag, don a cutlass and start cutting throats!'

We loved it, the staff thought it was funny and nobody had a case of the 'Concerned Mothers' Brigade' over it.
As far as I know, it's still there, grinning at all who pass by.

Another lecturer has a sign with Sinatra on it saying 'It's Frank's world, we just live in it'.
To my knowledge, the theoretical physics department has never lodged an informal challenge to his assertion.

EDIT:

Nor has the International Relations dept.

You guys are lucky. My high school got started my junior if high school. We voted to be called the Pirates but the Hippy Parents found it "too evil" even though the school in the town over was the vikings, so we ended up being called the buccaneers. *Sigh* I hate hippies sometimes.


Course when we had a school camping trips we were allowed to fish but had to let them go after, because seeing the cute wittle fishies get killed and eaten would make the small children cry apparently.

That's hilarious- my college's teams (UCC) are known as the Pirates! At rugby and soccer etc there are actually Jolly Rogers on display, like!
That's a crying shame, dude! Man... talk about bleeding heart liberal. That's fair enough about letting the fish go, but what was the point if they didn't teach you how to prepare and cook the fish for, you know, camping in the real outdoors? Madness.

Hippies ruin stuff all the time, but so do extremists on the other side of the spectrum.
Buccaneers were just as bad as pirates. Silly hippies.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Warning Fascism ahead!

 

[darkknight9]

There was wasn't mentioning that University of Wisconsin was the site of the Army Math Research Center Bombing and they do take things a little more serious there.

That was in Madison, about four hours away from the Stout campus in Menomonie.

 

[t3h br0th3r]

[quote="t3h br0th3r" post="7.314975.12792935"

Despite taking public funds, public universities still operate as privet institutions and therefore can have whatever rules they want, as long as they don't violate the letter of the law.

If they wanted to have a rule where all students and staff were required to wear orange pants and red jumpsuits then they could.

Displaying that particular line crossed the line (hurr hurr hurr, pun).If that prof had been smart enough to keep the poster inside his office, where he could expect the vast majority of people going in either know him or be able and willing to listen to an explanation about said poster.

by having it up on the outside of his office means perfect strangers, more than likely non-nerdy strangers, will pass by his door, see the odd quote, think that guy is nuts and then re=think bringing their child and tuition dollar to the university. the same goes for the fascism poster.

I am not talking about banning anything, I am simply talking about professionalism. Its something you gain with time and this guy had more than enough of that to not only avoid his first mistake (displaying the poster) but how to handle it when he messes up and avoid the second mistake (the fascism poster). This prof was incredibly unprofessional, thus keeping me from feeling sorry for him.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

This is absolutely absurd.

They're worried that he might carry out his threat of arming people and then killing them? Even if you did suspect him of actually planning to do this - just don't take any fucking guns from the guy and you're in the clear.

It amazes me how people think the best way to guarantee safety is to completely ignore the context of the situation or the history of the person. If he's a professor there, he's gone through some serious fucking filters already. If everyone up until this point failed to catch on to the fact that he had a penchant for arming people and killing them in duels, we have some bigger fucking problems.

 

[Enslave_All_Elves]

I could see if he scrawled it in feces on the fucking wall... but from a sci fi tv show?

God forbid he puts up Darth Vader, then he'll be a violent fascist and he'll have two bases covered in one poster.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I support people acting like professionals within the context of their jobs.

Judging/Ripping down posters is not within the context of security chief.

The situation is what it is because the professor escalated it through his actions when he should have been trying to defuse or put an end to it immediately.

Of course. It's his fault now. How dare he express outrage at a violation of his property.

"The poster can be interpreted as a threat by others and/or could cause those that view it to believe that you are willing/able to carry out actions similar to what is listed,"

Now, that's NOT University policy, that's the inane ramblings of a power-hungry unauthorised legal representative who is NOT part of the faculty.

And that's a personal attack with no basis in fact.

It's a personal attack with a basis in research.
1) Not University Policy. I've checked.
2) Inane ramblings. Check. Not defined and applicable to a wide range of ideas, none of which are embedded in that poster.
3) power-hungry. Check. That's not part of her job description. She is overstepping her boundaries.
4) Unauthorised. Check. The Security chief goes through the training of police but is never employed by them.
5) Legal Representative. Check. Listed in the University webpage.
6) Not part of the faculty. Check. She is a Security chief. They exist in parallel to the education departments.

Have you ever considered the fact that his superiors support the chief's actions and therefore the actions against the professor.

Yes, see bullying above.

We're not talking about books and academia, we're talking about what a professor puts on their wall. Teaching curriculum and putting personal affects on the wall which can be construed to advocate violence or threats are not the same thing no matter how hard you try to make it.

If you cannot, or will not, see that a person's individual space needs to reflect his temperament, then I suggest both you and Ms. Walter take the appropriate class in Sensitivity Training.

If you also believe that Universities need to be cleared of things that may construe threats, then I suggest you walk into any Student's Union and just start tearing.

And finally, if you are in favour of stopping violent incidents in Universities, the FIRST thing you should do is stop students carrying guns.

Because if you're stopping them trying to be affected by things they've seen, you have forgotten what Universities are for. Learning.

 

[DracoSuave]

Despite taking public funds, public universities still operate as privet institutions and therefore can have whatever rules they want, as long as they don't violate the letter of the law.

If they wanted to have a rule where all students and staff were required to wear orange pants and red jumpsuits then they could.

Displaying that particular line crossed the line (hurr hurr hurr, pun).If that prof had been smart enough to keep the poster inside his office, where he could expect the vast majority of people going in either know him or be able and willing to listen to an explanation about said poster.

by having it up on the outside of his office means perfect strangers, more than likely non-nerdy strangers, will pass by his door, see the odd quote, think that guy is nuts and then re=think bringing their child and tuition dollar to the university. the same goes for the fascism poster.

I am not talking about banning anything, I am simply talking about professionalism. Its something you gain with time and this guy had more than enough of that to not only avoid his first mistake (displaying the poster) but how to handle it when he messes up and avoid the second mistake (the fascism poster). This prof was incredibly unprofessional, thus keeping me from feeling sorry for him.

I feel sorry for your education that you never got to go to a school that had such expression out in the open.

It's actually really common, particularily in the arts faculties, to do stuff like this. ANd it has nothing to do with 'nerdy' or not. The same rule, similiarly misapplied, would cause SHakespeare quotes to be banned.

It's a fucking dramatics arts class showing a character quoting a line. It's as 100% appropriate as having a periodic table outside a chemistry room.



The security chief's job is to assess threats. If a security chief believes a poster from pop culture construes a threat, then said security chief is demonstrably incompetent at the most fundamental part of their job: Identifying threats. They should not continue to have that job, or receive proper training in what a threat is and is not.


Also notice that discussion of 'professionalism' is irrelevant to the security chief's job. They are not management. They have no say in what is or is not professional conduct, or what is or is not to be displayed. They are there to stop threats. Nothing more.

-snip-

That's a crying shame, dude! Man... talk about bleeding heart liberal.

If you're going to use liberal as an insult, take the time to understand what it means.

Lioberals support freedom. Liberalism means the core belief that societal interferance in personal affairs is kept to a minimum. You're confusing 'liberalism' with 'conservativism', the belief that government should act to maintain the societal status quo.

 

[ardencabbel]

Please ignore this post, I am having technical difficulties.